Toy with a plurality of orbiting members

ABSTRACT

A toy device adapted to be held in the hand by a handle which supports a plurality of spaced arms between each pair of which there is rotatably supported on a pin extending between the arms a ball which may be rotated about the pin, the arrangement being such that one of the balls may rotate about the pin in one direction while another of the balls may be rotated about the pin in the opposite direction or be stationary depending upon the skill of the operator.

United States Patent Manzo 51 Sept. 26, 1972 [54] TOY WITH A PLURALITY OF ORBITING MEMBERS [72] Inventor: John Manzo, 1225 Cranston St.,

Cranston, RI. 02920 [22] Filed: June 1, 1971 [21] Appl. N0.: 148,451

[51] Int. Cl. ..A63h l/32 [58] Field of Search ..46/47; 272/81, 84; 273/97-99, 95

[56] References Cited UNITED STATES PATENTS 1,077,340 11/1913 Graham ..46/47 1,858,145 5/1932 Felardo ..46/51 3,550,312 12/1970 East ..273/95 A FOREIGN PATENTS OR APPLICATIONS 48,906 7/1933 Denmark ..46/47 238,357 8/1925 Great Britain ..46/47 OTHER PUBLICATIONS Playthings, Mar. 1960, Vol. 58, No. 3, pg. 388.

Primary Examiner-Louis G. Mancene Assistant Examiner-D. L. Weinhold AttorneyBarlow and Barlow [57] ABSTRACT A toy device adapted to be held in the hand by a handle which supports a plurality of spaced arms between each pair of which there is rotatably supported on a pin extending between the arms a ball which may be rotated about the pin, the arrangement being such that one of the balls may rotate about the pin in one direction while another of the balls may be rotated about the pin in the opposite direction or be stationary depending upon the skill of the operator.

8 Claims, 5 Drawing Figures PATENTEBSEPZB I972 FIG.4

INVENTOR MANZO ATTORNEYS TOY WITH A PLURALITY OF ORBITING MEMBERS BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION Various hand manipulated devices are known, many of which depend upon the skill of the operator for proper manipulation of the device. One of these comprises a handle with a ball mounted on right-angular axes in a gimbal effect as in U.S. Pat. No. 1,077,340 dated Nov. 4, 1913, but this does not have the capabilities of the present device which is about to be described.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION The device of this invention has an elongated bar which may be supported by a handle while a plurality of pairs of arms extend from the bar and are in a plane common with the plane of the bar. Between these pairs of arms a member is rotatably mounted on a pin which extends between each of the pairs of arms so as to be rotated about the pin by a manual wrist manipulation of the handle. The wrist manipulation may cause one of the members to rotate in one circular direction about the pin while another of the members may be rotated in the opposite direction or held without revolution depending on the skill of the operator.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS FIG. 1 is an elevation of the device;

FIG. 2 is a sectional view of the device on line 2-2 of FIG. 1;

FIG-3 is a perspective view of one of the rotatable members;

FIG. 4 is an elevation of the pin upon which the member of FIG. 3 rotates; and

FIG. 5 is a diagrammatic view taken on section substantially 55 illustrating the rotation that the members may have about their pivotal axes.

DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENT With reference to the drawings 7 designates generally a body member which includes an elongated bar 8 and a handle 9 extending therefrom and, as shown in FIG. 1, is located centrally of the elongated bar 1 1 and extends at right angles thereto, although this handle may be otherwise located for manipulation by the hand.

Pairs of arms 10 and 11, 12 and 13 and 14 and 15 are located in substantially a single plane and in the plane of the bar 1 l and extend at generally right angles to the bar in pairs which pairs are in spaced relation. These arms may be of the same piece of material as the bar and may be molded in one piece therewith. Likewise the handle may be of the same molded piece of material as the bar and arms or it may be of a separate piece of material suitably attached to the bar in any convenient manner.

A plurality of members shown 16 are supported between the arms, and while these members may be of any shape I have illustrated them as spherical and each identical. They may be solid or hollow and are formed by molding from which there extends a hanger 17 with a bearing 18 extending from either side of the hanger 17 so that the hanger is substantially midway between the ends of the bearings 18. This bearing 18 is cylindrical having an inner cylindrical surface 19 which receives a supporting member 20 in the form of a pin, round in cross section, which extends between the arms or pairs of arms 10 and 11, 12 and 13,14 and 15. A pin common to all of the arms is shown and is of a solid construction which may be headed as at 21 to engage the end of the arm 15 and is headed as at 22 to be snapped through an opening in the arm 10 for holding it in place. This pin which is round in cross section forms a journal and extends through the cylindrical bearing 18 of each of the members 16 so as to rotatably mount the member on the pin 20 with one member between each of the pairs of arms. The length of the bearing 18 is just a little shorter than the space between the ends of each pair of arms but is sufficient in length so that when the end 23 of the bearing engages one of the arms the member 16 will still clear the arm and thus may continue to rotate even though the end 23 of the bearing is against the inside surface 24 of the arm 15 or the inside surface 25 of the arm 14 upon which it will friction. In this particular case each of the arms is bowed outwardly away from the center of the spherical member 16 so that the clearance between the outer surface of the spherical member and the arm will always have clearance between the outer surface of the spherical member and the arm even though the end of the bearing 23 is against the surface 24 or the end of the bearing is against the other arm surface 25.

The pairs of arms are also molded in such a way that arms 11 and 12 and arms 13 and 14 have a connection between them for better support, and as stated above are all one piece with the bar 11 of the body.

In order to operate the device'the handle is gripped in the hand and by a rocking motion of the wrist one or more of the balls may be rotated so that its bearing 18 will permit it to pivot around the pin 20. By certain skills of the arm and wrist movement all of the balls may be made to rotate in the same direction about the pin 20 or one of the balls may be made to rotate in one direction while the other balls rotate in the opposite direction or one of the balls may be made to stay stationary while the other balls are rotated either in the same direction as each other or in opposite directions while one ball is held stationary all upon the skill of the operator. The skill resulting in permitting the bearing to slide so that it frictions against one or the other of the arms between which it is mounted and by providing the proper manipulation, these different results may be had. Thus, an amusement is provided and also excellent exercise of the wrist when such exercise is prescribed for certain muscles of the arm.

I claim:

1. A device of the class described comprising a body member including an elongated bar, a handle of a size to be manually gripped secured to and extending from said bar, a plurality of pairs of spaced arms in generally a single plane and extending laterally from the bar, a pivotal support extending between said pairs of spaced arms, and a member between each of said arms having a bearing rotatably mounted on said support for rotation about the support by manual manipulation of the handle.

2. A device as in claim 1 wherein said pivotal support is a pin extending between each of said arms.

3. A device as in claim 1 wherein said pivotal support is a pin extending between each of said arms and is of circular cross section and said bearing has a cylindrical inner surface engaging said pin.

4. A device as in claim 1 wherein said pivotal support is a pin extending between each of said arms common to all of said plurality of pairs of arms.

5. A device as in claim 4 wherein said pin is cylindrical along the portion between said pairs of arms.

6. A device as in claim 1 wherein members are spherical in shape.

7. A device as in claim 1 wherein said pivotal support 

1. A device of the class described comprising a body member including an elongated bar, a handle of a size to be manually gripped secured to and extending from said bar, a plurality of pairs of spaced arms in generally a single plane and extending laterally from the bar, a pivotal support extending between said pairs of spaced arms, and a member between each of said arms having a bearing rotatably mounted on said support for rotation about the support by manual manipulation of the handle.
 2. A device as in claim 1 wherein said pivotal support is a pin extending between each of said arms.
 3. A device as in claim 1 wherein said pivotal support is a pin extending between each of said arms and is of circular cross section and said bearing has a cylindrical inner surface engaging said pin.
 4. A device as in claim 1 wherein said pivotal support is a pin extending between each of said arms common to all of said plurality of pairs of arms.
 5. A device as in claim 4 wherein said pin is cylindrical along the portion between said pairs of arms.
 6. A device as in claim 1 wherein members are spherical in shape.
 7. A device as in claim 1 wherein said pivotal support is a pin extending between each of said arms common to all of said plurality of pairs of arms and said bearing is an elongated member extending a major distance between said arms.
 8. A device as in claim 1 wherein said pivotal sUpport is a pin extending between each of said arms common to all of said plurality of pairs of arms and said bearing is an elongated member extending a major distance between said arms and said member is attached to the mid portion of said bearing. 